Main menu

Post navigation

The Watering Hole: August 25 – The Great Moon Hoax

On August 25, 1835 the New York Sun came out with a series about life found on the Moon.

From the August 28 issue of the paper:

Our plain was of course immediately covered with the ruby front of this mighty amphitheater, its tall figures, leaping cascades, and rugged caverns. As its almost interminable sweep was measured off on the canvass, we frequently saw long lines of some yellow metal hanging from the crevices of the horizontal strata in will net-work, or straight pendant branches. We of course concluded that this was virgin gold, and we had no assay-master to prove to the contrary.

The series ran for 8 days and resulted in world wide acceptance of the proffered subject and an increase in circulation. The series ended with a fire at the observatory when its telescope was directed at the Sun. The observatory was a total loss.

The author was supposedly Dr. Andrew Grant, who described himself as the travelling companion of Sir John Herschel. Dr Grant was a fabrication from the perpetrator’s imagination.

Was the perpetrator an early Republican? The story had no scientific foundation and flew in the face of actual science even in its time.

This is our Open Thread. Please feel free to present your thoughts on any topic.

About WaltTheMan

201 thoughts on “The Watering Hole: August 25 – The Great Moon Hoax”

.
What a great litho:
Nice touch with unicorns making an appearance in the right lower quadrant!
. Pterodactyl-looking sorts on the banks of the river.
Palm tree -looking plants – amazing how much the Moon surface resembles a fantastical earth. Of course the writer had no idea the Moon was actually made of bleu cheese/

Meanwhile back on this planet, in Darth Cheney’s soon to be released memoirs, Darth writes that he wanted to bomb Syria. See us tree hugging progressives had the war mongering neocons all wrong. Darth saw the evilness in Assad and wanted to liberate the people of Syria. *snark*

George W. Bush rejected [Cheney’s] advice in 2007 to bomb a suspected nuclear reactor site in Syria.

The New York Times reported Wednesday that Cheney says he was “a lone voice” for military action against Syria. Other advisers were reluctant, Cheney says, because of “the bad intelligence we had received about Iraq’s stockpiles of weapons of mass destruction” before the 2003 invasion of that country.

The Israelis bombed the Syrian site later in 2007.

Umm…Cheney and Wolfowitz were the SOURCE of that bad intelligence that “we had received” (*cough*) and by that time (2007) Bush and his advisers could admit it—in private of course—otherwise, I guess it was a brilliant idea.

Never mind that the “suspected nuclear reactor site” was nothing of the sort.

a new poll finds that 51 percent of Americans say “George W. Bush is most to blame for the down economy.” Forty-four percent say “a lot” or “most” of the blame should fall on congressional Republicans, while 36 percent say the same of Democrats.

That ought to read something like “Bush and congressional GOP-blame 85%, Democrats 15%”—BUT still, those figures seem to reflect fairly fact-based opinion, which is encouraging.
The trouble is, if the Dems regain the majority in 2012 we’ll still likely be stuck with the same GOP-enabling Blue Dogs.

Until now, there’s been two kinds of political action committees. There’s your classic PAC, capable of making contributions to federal candidates, but which only runs on donations from individual donors capped at $5,000. Than there are “super” PACs, fueled by unlimited donations from corporations and capable of making independent expenditures, but unable to donate directly to candidates.

Now, thanks to a lawsuit against the Federal Election Commission, you can have the best of both worlds with what the campaign finance world has already dubbed a “hybrid PAC.” If you’re stuck with a regular old PAC, it’s super easy to upgrade. All you have to do is open a separate bank account.
[…]

Well, I guess this last line, “We of course concluded that this was virgin gold, and we had no assay-master to prove to the contrary.” is just like Republicans today. Make some shit up and then claim that since no one was around to prove them wrong, they must be right. And this, of course, fits in with their anti-Science way of thinking.

Progressives are sitting pretty.
Even though Obama leaves something to be desired, the potential Republican opposition field makes W look like a Rhodes scholar.
Bachmann?
Perry?
Palin?
Romney?
Not a lot of brain activity there.

Eric Cantor has very lofty career goals and he will leave his boot marks on anyone that goes sideways against him.
He’s an asshole in all capital letters.
He realizes that being jewish, he will most likely never be able to run for president but he does aspire to be Speaker of the House.
Then, after his stint as speaker it’s off to K street.

I wouldn’t say “after”. More like “during”. Remember that the last time the Rs controlled Congress, Cantor was a huge proponent of pay-to-play legislation. Simply put, the man is without morals. Cantor is a perfect examopel of a Republican who does not know the meaning of the words “conflict of interest”, let alone the appearance of one. He has no business being in the government of a representative democracy.

The extent of the Culpeper damage:
1, possibly 2 buildings will have to be torn down immediately, displacing a deli and perhaps a lawyer’s office.
Two churches are condemned, one is believed to be repairable, the status of the other is not certain.
The chimneys on the sheriff’s office, another church, and train station will need to be demolished.
Several small businesses were damaged, windows broken, a few bricks fallen. A friend lost a good bit of his wine stocks in his shop (Damn).
That’s it. Surely the great state of Virginia can deal with this.

One more earthquake comment, and then I’ll shut up about our “big one”. We had a small aftershock last night. No big deal, but having felt the 5.8, I was actually scared until it stopped because I feared it would worsen. I can’t imagine how you Californians deal with that.
Also, my chickens have quit laying.

Outstanding, the nature of eastern earthquakes seems a bit different than those I have experienced in the west. Yours seem to be fairly sustained and rumbly/rolling, while in the west we usually have jolts (big and small). I’ve only felt one long rolling earthquake, which happened in the Seattle area and rolled across the entire state of Washington, and we felt it in Moscow. It made me feel queasy, as if I were in a boat!

Being in California, I’ve lived through a few. Only one was strong enough that getting in a doorway seemed prudent. When the shaking stops, sniff around the gas meter, furnace & stove for gas, and go about life.

At least with an earthquake, all your possessions are in one spot. With a tornadoe, your house, and household goods are spread over 5 counties!

… (on Wednesday) Rubio denounced entitlement programs such as Medicare for having “weakened” the American people.

Back in May he had this to say:

“My parents immigrated to the United States in the late 1950s. They worked hard for over 40 years to provide their children the chance to do all the things they themselves could not. But they never made much money.
As a result, they retired with precious little in savings. Medicare was and is the only way they could access healthcare.

When my father got sick, Medicare paid for his numerous hospital stays. And as he reached the end of life, Medicare allowed him to die with dignity by paying for his hospice care. […]

America needs Medicare. We need it to continue without any benefit reductions for those like my mother currently in the system. And we need it to survive for my generation and my children’s generation.”

“…the Perry administration wanted to help Wall Street investors gamble on how long retired Texas teachers would live. Perry was promising the state big money in exchange for helping Swiss banking giant UBS set up a business of teacher death speculation.”

GOP Congressman: You Think We Make A Lot? Have I Mentioned We’re Getting Shot At?

… “If you think this job pays too much, with those kinds of risks and cutting me off from my family business, I’ll just tell you: This job don’t mean that much to me. I had a good life in Panama City.”

The American auto industry is thriving in a horrible economy. Why? Guaranteed loans and a little friendly advice and regulation from the (gulp!) U.S. government. It’s really too bad that the “librul media” seldom gives a Democrat an opportunity to speak plainly. I’ve found YouTube clips of several lawmakers, including Al Franken, speak very eloquently about the recovery of the auto industry but I’ll be damned if I can find an actual interview from the big networks that so much as mentions it.

State Rep. Phillip Hinkle, the anti-gay marriage Indiana Republican accused of offering to pay a young man he met over Craigslist for “a good time,” admits that he paid the man but contends that they didn’t do anything illicit — they just talked about “baseball and the view.”

“My focus from the outset has not been one of criminal prosecution, but rather addressing workplace safety,” Bradley wrote. “I contacted law enforcement the very night the incident happened but did not request criminal prosecution. Rather I sought law enforcement’s assistance to try to have the entire court address informally this workplace safety issue that has progressed over the years.”

She should have gone for criminal prosecution from the outset — since a crime was committed. Talk about muddying the waters…

Sad news broke this morning that a security guard at a BP oil-drilling operation in Alaska shot and killed a polar bear. The guard claims he thought he’d fired a bean-bag round to scare the female away, but instead it turned out to be a “cracker shell” that mortally wounded her. The bear was shot Aug. 3 and apparently died about two weeks later from internal injuries.

Polar bears were listed as a threatened species in 2008 after a petition and years of work by the Center for Biological Diversity. Last year, 120 million acres were designated as “critical habitat” for polar bears. Despite that, oil and gas development continues in the heart of polar bear habitat. Although there are rules about how to handle bears in those areas, today’s news is a troubling reminder that bears often pay a price when fossil-fuel industries encroach on the last few places they have to live.

Reichwhiners have lots of stupid positions but the stupidest just might be their simultaneous condemnation of abortion and contraception/comprehensive sex education. The surest way to reduce unwanted pregnancies is to provide free contraception and education starting around 10-11 years old.

Of course, any child who spends a bit of time on a farm will have the mechanics of mammalian reproduction made very clear. While the logistics are daunting I have often thought that every child should spend at least a couple weeks on a farm for that reason alone. But? The fundies will raise a stink if some show on the Discovery Channel actually covers the whole process from mating through birth.

The education part is so easy. Any 10 year old, without severe learning disabilities, will understand the subject within less than a full class hour and half of that hour will be the kids giggling and the teacher blushing. It’s zero cost too. One session of a health or biology class, that’s already funded, will cover it.

The cost of free contraception, while not zero, is insignificant compared to the costs of public support, adoption, or even abortion. I seem to recall someone postulating that a free condom dispenser could be put in every school bathroom in he country for less than we pay in a day in Iraq. Plus, most of those condoms would be used for water balloons instead of “dirty sex” anyway.

Apparently the teabagging idiots that got electerated in 2010 are finding out that governin’s tuff wurk. From TPM Today..

FLA Rep: This Job Ain’t Cushy
At a townhall yesterday, when questioned about his salary, Rep. Steve Southerland (R-FL) played the Sean Duffy card, telling constituents it’s a pretty lean salary given how many hours he puts in and the risks he runs.

“And by the way, did I mention? They’re shooting at us,” Southerland told constituents. “If you think this job pays too much, with those kinds of risks and cutting me off from my family business, I’ll just tell you: This job don’t mean that much to me. I had a good life in Panama City.”

— Josh Marshall

Note to teabagging idiot. You ran for election and won. If you don’t like it fucking resign.

Apparently, Marion “Pat” Robertson is even more out of touch than we thought. A sane person would have noted that almost everyone in the world had spoofed Mr. Robertson’s inevitable claim that the East Coast earthquake was a “sign from God” and sat this one out. But? Not to be outdone by pretenders, critics, and commentators he just couldn’t stop himself from stepping off the cliff despite the throng screaming at him “don’t do it! You’re about to walk off a cliff”.

Perhaps the impending hurricane impact on Maryland is a sign of God’s displeasure with their failure to pass marriage equality. Perhaps the fact that Pat’s broadcasting empire is smack in the path of Irene is a sing of God’s disgust with Pat.

“Naomi Colon, head of the Marcy Houses Tenant Association, said there have been sightings of the outsize rat [killed today] for at least six years. “The residents have told me that they’ve seen it running around with other rats.” … Tenants fear that the Gambian rat has been breeding with the Norway rats and spawning a super-breed of rodents … . Residents say that while the monster-sized rat may be the stuff of horror movies, the run-of-the-mill rats are an even bigger nightmare at the project where Jay-Z grew up. “Even the cats are afraid of the rats. They get together and gang up on the cats, said resident Stephanie Davis, 44.”

“I never said [Palin] is going to declare..I’m mystified. Look she is all upset about this, saying I’m trying to sabotage her in some way. And how dare I speculate on her future. If she doesn’t want to be speculated about as a potential candidate, there’s an easy way to end the speculation: say ‘I’m not running.’ … I’m saying the schedule leads me to believe she is going to be a candidate. I’m not privy to her thought-making process. It is a sign of enormous thin skin (that) if we speculate about her she would be upset,” – Karl Rove.

Apparently, they also cut him off for a “breaking news” announcement about Steve Jobs resigning even though they had already covered the story. It makes me wonder if Rover has a better offer. He’s too crafty to bad-mouth Bible Spice on her BFF’s show if he doesn’t have a parachute.

“The eastern diamondback rattlesnake is a wildlife icon of North America,” said biologist Bruce Means, president and executive director of the Coastal Plains Institute, in a prepared statement. Means was also one of the petitioners. “Africa has its lion, Asia its tiger, and we can boast of this marvelous ‘Don’t Tread On Me’ snake. Like so many others, it’s a wildlife treasure that we must not allow to go extinct. Remaining habitat for the snake must be preserved, and negative public attitudes toward these nonaggressive animals must be reversed.”

I, however, am an unapologetic fan of snakes. I’ve had several pet snakes and I find them fascinating and far more interactive than one may think. One of my first encounters was a common water snake I caught on the beach on a cool day. When I first grabbed it it bit me (I still have a tiny scar) but within minutes it figured out that I wasn’t going to hurt it and that I was a heat source. The little feller curled up on my lap and soaked it in. Then I hand fed it a couple minnows and, for the rest of that summer, my “pet” would come and visit me every time our paths crossed. Even if I didn’t have any minnows or leeches to feed it it would seek out contact and climb around on me after being in the cool lake.

When, exactly, do statements like these shift from protected speech to sedition?

Gheen: Once again this isn’t just Obama, this is a group of people, we’ve been reading about them for five or ten years now about how they plan to integrate the economies of North America and to do so in a way to do so that bypasses the legislatures, that’s been in all the materials that we’ve read and here it is in front of us. They’re integrating the workforce of North America and the populations of North America and they did just bypass the legislatures. The same cabal has such influence with the media and the Associated Press, I’ll give you example and I haven’t totally mentioned this on the air before, right after Obama did this I got a call from an Associated Press writer out of Washington, D.C., she’s like ‘what’s your initial reaction’ and I said, ‘this is, Obama has just exceeded his constitutional authority and acted in a dictatorial manner which we believe removes all legitimacy for his presidency and that we’re gonna be calling on the Republican to remove this man from office as soon as possible.’

And I didn’t say just impeachment. I said remove him from office because some people are also leaning to the words ‘treason’ and talking about the military coming in or somebody just coming in taking this guy into some form of arrest if we’re doing this. I mean what do you do here? What does a nation do when this happens? We may have to try to have to gather in the streets and demand that Obama step down. But you know when you talk about doing that, you’re gonna gather in the streets of Washington D.C. which where Obama has a support rate of 88% of the blacks and Hispanics who live there.

Wingnut William Gheen is from the Americans for Legal Immigration PAC (ALIPAC). ALIPAC claims to be a PAC formed to “address the disparity between the public’s desire for more control of illegal immigration and the actions of lawmakers.” It’s really a thinly-disguised hate group. In 2010 Dave Neiwert wrote about their dirty, lying efforts to lobby against the DREAM Act. It seems Shawna Forde may also have had ALIPAC links, at least, if wingnut Jim Gilchrist is to be believed.

But President Obama’s directive to limit deportations to immigrants with criminal records seems to have driven Gheen right off the edge and into a place he shouldn’t be.
[…]

Gheen. Reminds me of a fellow from Wisconsin back when I was a lad, a farmer named Ed Gien. He was nuts too: liked to eat people.

This guy is worse, though. He’s almost Hitlerian in his fears, his attitudes. Fits right in with the American nutcase fascist right, though. Bottom line, I have a real shitty feeling about what’s going down in this country. Like the dude from Venezuela said when he followed Bush to the podium in the UN General Assembly a few years back, “There’s a lingering sulfurous aroma …” (something close to that, don’t have the quote handy).

I knew some distant relatives of Ed Gein and they had changed the spelling of their name. The young ladies of the family were all spectacular blonds and they ran the family’s produce stand all summer. We universally called them “the girls with the nice melons”. They sold sweetcorn, squash, tomatoes, and other veggies but it’s the “melons” that really kept the business thriving.

Vice President Dick Cheney’s history of heart problems started in 1978, when the 37-year old suffered his first of four heart attacks. Cheney’s health has been put under the national spotlight since his last heart attack a few weeks after the 2000 presidential election.

I’ll give Governor Christie a little credit for stepping back from the brink of insanity that the GOP, at large, seems to leap over every succeeding day. That being said; it’s time to dispense with the saying “100 year flood”. The climate has changed since the old records were compiled. Here in Minnesota we have had, at least, 5 “100 year floods” since 1991. Other localities have seen worse. One of my favorite trout steams has seen a “100 year flood” virtually every year and now there are no homes or farms in the valley. The, former, residents have given up. The old paradigms no longer apply.

.
My nephew has been in Mooresville (near Charlotte), North Carolina since Jan. or Feb. My niece-in-law and the kids arrived last weekend (from AZ).
Today was my Grandniece’s first day of school (she loved it).

Cook grew up in Robertsdale, Alabama, the son of a retired shipyard worker. He earned a Bachelor’s degree in industrial engineering from Auburn University in 1982 and an MBA from Duke University in 1988.

Think of it as a paradox. I’m a liberal, which identifies with blue. I’m also a blue collar worker. The Auburn colors are orange and blue. Yet the team I support has Crimson in its name, in a red state.

.
Some how I don’t think Pat has ‘god’s ear’ on this one. It seems to be a might big smite – for what, who knows.
Earlier in the thread Outstanding wrote that Robertson’s media outfit maybe in the path of this storm.

Me too. 3 bees, Bus, bike, and (by) foot is my motto. I fire up the old Mazda a couple times a month to go to the doctor and that’s about it when I’m feeling spry.

I misspent much of my youth and middle age turning gasoline into noise, speed, and smoke. Looking back at the cars I’ve had; two stand out. My very first new car was a 1963 Chevy Biscayne with a 230c.i. 6 cylinder engine. She weighed 4,000 pounds and wouldn’t hit 70mph unless one drove her off a suitably high cliff. (The funny part is that, with snow tires, she would climb hills better than a pickup or a jeep or a modified VW Beetle. Even after I put “Bessie” in retirement she remained my hunting and trout fishing car.Driving through 4 inches of mud or 12 inches of snow wasn’t a problem.)

But? The most fun I’ve had is in a 1974 Triumph Spitfire. It was a mechanical nightmare but It was so very fun. On the rare occasions that I managed to make it run in proper English fashion (Dad explained the British as a bunch of bureaucrats who sat around the pub saying, “that’ll do nicely”.) it was like driving around your favorite nighty or a proper set of 100% cotton “long-jhons” or the most comfortable couch in the world.

That, among other things, is why I refuse to pay for TV as we know it. I’ll be “ding-danged”, as the feller said, if I will ever pay the tiniest fraction of a cent to a station that lies. As far as I can tell that’s all of them. So? I get my TV fix on line for free.